For more than half a century, vibratory bowl feeders have been the standard in automated assembly for singulation, orientation, and manipulation of small parts. Unfortunately, these feeders are expensive, noisy, and highly specialized on a single part design bases. We consider an alternative device and learning control method for singulation, orientation, and manipulation by means of seven fixed-position variable-energy solenoid impulse actuators located beneath a semi-rigid part supporting surface. Using computer vision to provide part pose information, we tested various machine learning (ML) algorithms to generate a control policy that selects the optimal actuator and actuation energy. Our manipulation test object is a 6-sided craps-style die. Using the most suitable ML algorithm, we were able to flip the die to any desired face 30.4\% of the time with a single impulse, and 51.3\% with two chosen impulses, versus a random policy succeeding 5.1\% of the time (that is, a randomly chosen impulse delivered by a randomly chosen solenoid).
Image-based Visual Servo Control for Aerial Manipulation Using a Fully-Actuated UAV
ShanghaiTech University(上海科技大学);Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani(比尔拉科学技术学院皮拉尼分校);Pennsylvania State University(宾夕法尼亚州立大学);Carnegie Mellon University(卡内基梅隆大学)
Design and Validation of an Under-actuated Robotic Finger with Synchronous Tendon Routing
ShanghaiTech University(上海科技大学);School of Information Science and Technology(信息科学与技术学院);ShanghaiTech Automation and Robotics (STAR) Center(上海科技大学自动化与机器人中心);King’s College London(伦敦大学国王学院)
Neural Operators for Design-Space Surrogate Modeling of Tendon-Actuated Continuum Robots
The Robotics Center and the Kahlert School of Computing at the University of Utah(犹他大学机器人中心和Kahlert计算学院);The Departments of Computer Science and Electrical and Computer Engineering at Vanderbilt University(范德比大学计算机科学与电气与计算机工程系)
Manipulider: A Multi-Engine Buoyancy-Controlled Robot for Thrusterless Underwater Gliding and Manipulation
Dept. of Computer Science, Dartmouth College(达特茅斯学院计算机科学系);Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Houston(休斯顿大学机械与航空航天工程系);Dept. of Aerospace and Ocean Engineering, Virginia Tech(弗吉尼亚理工大学航空航天与海洋工程系);Dept. of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Clemson University(克莱姆森大学电气与计算机工程系)